San Francisco Giants (#50) Christian Koss hit his fourth home run this season against the St. Louis Cardinals in an MLB game on Tuesday, September 8th, 2026, at Oracle Park in San Francisco, CA. (Photo credit to Jae Choi)

By Michael Villanueva

SAN FRANCISCO – Tuesday morning, the San Francisco Giants learned the door to their postseason had closed. Due to tiebreaker procedures, the Giants are eliminated from the playoffs for the fifth straight year. So Tuesday evening, the Giants’ mentality was now just to have fun and win ball games. The Giants are in game two of three, hosting the St. Louis Cardinals. In Game 2 tonight at Oracle Park, the Giants (61-85) would get the win over the Cardinals (72-74), 2-1, and win this home series.

The Giants’ starting and winning pitcher of the game, Landen Roupp, would allow 2 hits, 0 runs, 4 BB, and 2 strikeouts in this game. This is also Roupp’s ninth win as a starter for San Francisco. St. Louis pitcher Quinn Mathews received his third loss as the starting pitcher for the Cardinals. Mathews would allow 5 hits, 2 runs, 2 ER, 4 strikeouts, and 2 homeruns.

San Francisco Giants first baseman Rafael Devers was named one of MLB Players of the Week. Devers batted .385 with six home runs, 13 RBI’s, and a 1.669 OPS from August 31st to September 6th. This is now his fifth career award and second straight for the Giants.

This game really off in San Francisco’s direction from early homers from Eldridge and Christian Koss. With one more win in tomorrow’s afternoon game, they can have the chance to sweep the Cardinals in this homestands. In the bottom of the first inning, Giants Bryce Eldridge would get the game started with his sixteenth homer of the season. Eldridge sent that ball to the left outfield and got the ballpark rocking early.

The Cardinals would have no response on their offensive side. So Giants Christian Koss decided to join in on the home run fun. In the bottom of the second inning, Koss would drill his third home run in the past four games. These two homers from Eldridge and Koss would be enough to give the Giants the lead and ultimately win this game.

St. Louis was able to find themselves in scoring positions. However, with smart pitching from Roupp and the Giants defense holding up. They were able to prevent the Cardinals from converting any runs. Especially by placing the ball low on his sinkers, forcing the Cardinals’ hitters to ground out.

It wouldn’t be until the top of the ninth inning that the game would see a drastic change. The St. Louis Cardinals weren’t gonna let up that easy against the Giants. With two outs, it was now or never to make a move. Cardinals Nathan Church would be able to get a single. On the next batter, Church would steal to second base on the first pitch. Leading up his teammate Bryan Torres to get a single, and bringing in Church to score.

With the score now being 2-1, but with two outs for the Cardinals. The Giants would just need one more stop to call the ballgame. So next batter, Cardinals Ivan Herrera would get grounded out, and that would conclude the ball game. With the Giants finding out this morning, there will be no playoffs. The team was all smiles after getting this Tuesday night win.

The San Francisco Giants won’t get a lot of rest as the team has to come back tomorrow afternoon to finish off this homestand with the Cardinals. Tomorrow’s win will give the Giants a sweep of the Cardinals. San Francisco will send out RHP Blade Tidwell (0-2), and St. Louis will go with RHP Andre Pallante (12-6). The game will be broadcast live on MLB.TV with first pitch at 12:45 p.m.